The Anthony Hotel — later the Van Orman: the grand dame, 1908–1974

1908 — 1974

Three years and half a million dollars: The Anthony was proposed by dry-goods merchant Ernest Rurode and built by the Fort Wayne Hotel Company, a group of the city's leading businessmen who had determined that Fort Wayne needed a modern first-class hotel. Construction began in 1905; the nine-story, 263-room house at 128 West Berry, the northeast corner of Berry and Harrison, took three years and $500,000, and opened with a celebratory banquet in February 1908. (The house is sometimes dated 1909; the opening banquet was February 1908.) Charles Weatherhogg designed it; ARCH's account of Weatherhogg records that he collaborated with Louis Sullivan of Chicago on the 1907 design, and the hotel was known for its ornate stained-glass central skylight and its use of marble. The crest of General Anthony Wayne was emblazoned on chair backs and other hotel furnishings.

The city's meeting place: The hotel was first managed by Hugh Keenan and then, from 1909, by his son James, who ran it until 1947. For more than sixty years, in the News-Sentinel's summary, the Anthony "was the city's leading meeting place." In 1947 it was leased to F. Harold Van Orman, who poured $400,000 into modernizing it and rebranded it the Van Orman — the name most mid-century Fort Wayne knew it by. Van Orman was a civic figure in his own right: president of the Fort Wayne Daisies women's baseball team and, with Ernie Berg and Ramon Perry, an original backer of the Fort Wayne Komets in 1952. When his lease expired in 1968 the house took the Anthony name back, but it closed in September 1969 and fell into disrepair, owing more than $100,000 in back taxes. The adjacent Fort Wayne National Bank bought it in 1973, wanting the ground for parking. The empty hotel was used for fire-training exercises and was condemned on May 3, 1973. Early on the cold Sunday morning of January 13, 1974, 294 explosive charges brought it down in nine seconds. Its corner has been a surface parking lot ever since. The implosion is carried in the Heritage section's ledger of losses; the building's architecture is in the Architecture section.

Sources:

1. Kevin Leininger, "Anthony's tale," Cityscapes, News-Sentinel, January 23, 1982 — the three years and $500,000, the 263 rooms, the Van Orman years, the September 1969 closing, condemnation May 3, 1973, and the January 13, 1974 implosion.
2. ACGSI, Named Places: Anthony Hotel (incl. Randy Harter's account) — construction from 1905, the February 1908 opening banquet, the Keenan management, the 1947 Van Orman lease and $400,000 modernization, the back taxes, the bank purchase, and 294 charges in nine seconds.
3. ARCH (archfw.org), "Charles Weatherhogg" — the 1907 collaboration with Louis Sullivan, the stained-glass skylight, and the marble.